Next Phase of Heart of the City II Unveiled

Exciting plans to retain a significant amount of heritage and create a new ‘cultural heart’ in the Council’s Heart of the City II development have been unveiled.

Block H, which is located on the site between Wellington Street, Carver Street and Cambridge Street, will provide a wide-ranging development split into three distinct elements (H1, H2 and H3). A period of public consultation on H2 and H3 begins today, ahead of a planning submission this Spring.

H2 will be a brand-new building offering approximately 70,000 sq ft of Grade A office space, split across seven upper floors and boasting an impressive south facing roof terrace, with retail and food and beverage units on the ground floor.

The visually striking, dark-coloured metal building will take inspiration from Sheffield’s celebrated industrial past. H2 has been designed to minimise operational energy, emitting around 40% less carbon than a typical Building Regulations compliant design. This efficiency will also continue to improve as the embodied carbon in the electricity grid reduces.

In contrast, the development for H3 (to be known as Cambridge Street Collective) will be aiming to retain as much of the quality, existing fabric and façades along Cambridge Street and Wellington Street as feasible – helping to attractively balance the old and new across the site.

Proposals for Cambridge Street Collective include a large, industrial-style space, which would be perfectly suited to a food hall or similar sociable, communal offer. Wrapping this space would be complementary shops, a bar and restaurant, and an upper level leisure space. The existing Bethel Chapel building will also be renovated, with plans for this to become a live entertainment venue.

Councillor Mazher Iqbal, Cabinet Member for Business and Investment at Sheffield City Council, explained the vision:

“We will be retaining a lot of attractive heritage across the Heart of the City II site, while also ensuring we create new spaces that are sustainable to the local economy. With some of the most interesting architecture in the city centre, Block H was always going to be one of the most rewarding blocks in the masterplan. We truly believe that these new plans will help provide a cultural heart and social anchor to the scheme.”

Plans now include the preservation and sympathetic restoration of the architecture along Cambridge Street and Wellington Street, including the listed Bethel Sunday School and Leah’s Yard, as well as the Bethel Chapel and the buildings that formerly housed Brewhouse and Henry’s. The historic buildings fronting these streets will be kept with internal adaptations and reconstruction carried out where necessary to bring them back into use.

Nick Roscoe of Hallamshire Historic Buildings, said:

“Sheffield City Council should be commended for taking this enlightened and forward-thinking approach to the interesting range of buildings that we can see on Cambridge Street and Wellington Street today.

“They have brought in first class architects and consulted carefully with stakeholders to make the most of these precious heritage assets. This is a project to be proud of and an approach we hope to see followed again.”

Have your say

Sheffield City Council invites you to comment on proposals for the next phase (Block H: Cambridge Street and Carver Street) of Heart of the City II. The Council and Queensberry recognise that people will have questions about the next stage of the scheme. Prior to the submission of planning applications, we want to inform key stakeholders and local residents about the proposals and give them an opportunity to contribute to our final plans. The pre-application consultation period will run 12 March to 7 April 2020. Click here to complete the online response form.

They are also offering public drop-in sessions, providing an opportunity to view the proposals in more detail and speak with key members of the Project Team. These will be held on Wednesday 25 March (15:30-19:00) and Thursday 26 March (11:00-16:00) Both events will take place at the former ‘Clicks and Mortar’ shop in Sheffield city centre (38-40 Pinstone Street, Sheffield, S1 2HN.)